My question while we wait, “What about me and God after the pandemic?”
What is your fondest wish for life after Covid-19? What do you most look forward to doing again after we’re vaccinated and running with the herd that has immunity?
We all have a list
Your list is probably similar to mine. Eating out, but inside a restaurant bustling with activity and music and happy conversation. Eating in, with guests around our table—maybe even more than ten of us! Concerts and plays, and giving the Cincinnati Reds one more chance to wow me at the ballpark.
And maybe most of all, church. Church with friends who share warm smiles and hearty handshakes and hugs, with back-and-forth about each other’s family and health and work. I’m thinking of so many faces I haven’t seen except for their Facebook posts, and only a comparative few there. I miss them. I miss singing, too. I remember what it’s like to be surrounded by others who are singing. Experiencing with them the mystical unity of expressing together, out loud, with melodies and sometimes even harmonies, our faith in and longing for God.
I miss warm smiles and hearty handshakes and hugs, with back-and-forth about each other’s lives.
In my seventy years I’ve seen many changes, life’s typical ups and downs, improvements created by the march of progress. But we’ve never endured anything like the weighty accumulation of all that’s been wrenched from our lives by this pandemic. I realize I long for so much that had stayed much the same for most of my days.
We won’t go back
But here’s the thing. We won’t go back. We will be forced to embrace changes that won’t be undone by winning the war against this virus. Newspapers and magazines and blog sites are full of predictions about all that will be permanently different after Covid-19.
Workplaces will be different. I’m glad I don’t own and am not trying to rent out space in an office building.
Consumer habits will have changed. I’m guessing my financial advisor is investing in online businesses and shying away from department stores and shopping malls.
Colleges and universities are planning for a growing number of distance learners, even after classrooms are open.
Church will be different, too. Do an internet search for “post-Covid church,” and you’ll find pages and pages of posts with predictions and advice from pastors, priests, and church leadership gurus. Frankly, I’m encouraged that church leaders are joining business and education leaders with creative thoughts about the future.
I’m not a pastor, priest, or guru, so I’ll leave them to chart their courses. But I AM responsible for myself—nothing can change that. So now, while we’re still hunkered down at home and waiting for things to get back to “normal,” now is the time to reconsider myself. What will be my relationship to God and the church post-Covid?
It’s not about programs
For starters, I’m considering how the personal is more important than the program. Sometimes I ponder all the resources that have been required to keep my local megachurch running. So much planning to launch programs and activities designed to engage people with the church. So many people required to teach children or run production or hand out food or welcome visitors or lead groups. So much effort to build attendance and encourage giving. It’s a machine as complicated as any not-so-small business.
It’s a machine as complicated as any not-so-small business.
I don’t mean to be critical, just analytical. I’m considering how much all of this is necessary for me to have a thriving relationship with God. I realize my search for him and his will has been more intense while I’ve been away from most of that during the pandemic. Activity does not equal spirituality. Programs may or may not make disciples.
How I develop as a Christian, how I engage the world around me with the love of Jesus, how I contribute to the prospering of my community for God’s sake—any of that may be helped by some initiative sponsored by my local church. All of it, however, is ultimately my responsibility to pursue. And sometimes church-inspired busyness allows me to substitute good things for godly growth.
Here’s what I must ask
It will still be a while before lockdowns are lifted and masks are put aside, before groups regather and calendars fill again. And so now is the time for me to consider, “What about me and God after the pandemic?”
What about me and God after the pandemic?
I’m grateful for Christian leaders—preachers and teachers and writers and singers—who will help me then. But I firmly believe the pandemic gives me the opportunity to rethink my Christian life. How will I recommit myself to obeying God and demonstrating his goodness in a world whose daily rhythms are changing? How will I make myself available to him day-by-day in every situation, not just those prompted by a church program? God may use Christian institutions and initiatives, starting with the local church, to touch my heart. But first I must offer it up to him.
And really, that’s a task that can’t wait ‘til the pandemic has passed. It’s an offering I can, I must, start giving today.
Image created by Ayşegül Altınel. Unsplash